


Waiting for the all-clear

by spockside



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Responsibility, safe sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-09 09:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spockside/pseuds/spockside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony was a grown-up when it mattered. Such as taking responsibility for black market Stark weaponry. Working with the Avengers Initiative and all the angst and drama that entailed.</p><p>Avoiding the angst and drama of a paternity lawsuit.</p><p>For the its_always_been prompt: "waiting".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting for the all-clear

Pepper wasn't the only responsible adult in this relationship. This shocked many people, mainly those who didn't know Tony Stark well, or only from the tabloids and news clips. Tony didn't mind that people thought of him as limelight-hogging, entitled, irresponsible, and so on. It made it more fun when they found out they completely underestimated him on nearly all counts.   
  
Still, he was a grown-up when it mattered. Such as taking responsibility for black market Stark weaponry. Working with the Avengers Initiative and all the angst and drama that entailed.   
  
Avoiding the angst and drama of a paternity lawsuit.   
  
Tony had always, without fail, used his own supply of condoms during any mischief of a sexual nature, even when his partner(s) claimed to be 99 and 66/100 per cent clean, even when he really cared about and trusted the party or parties involved. If there's one thing he learned from his dad, it was to cover his ass, or in this case, his dick.   
  
Thus it was that Tony Stark reached the age of, well, over thirty, without fathering offspring, legitimate or otherwise.    
  
(Not that he wasn't able to. His doctor checked his sperm count on a regular basis, to be sure. When Pepper found out she laughed nonstop for ten minutes and smirked for a couple of days over it.   
  
"What? Iron Man isn't going to be my only legacy," he'd countered. "I want to carry on the Stark line, someday. Just - not right now."   
  
"I agree, you do quite enough carrying on as it is," she'd managed to say before going off in gales of laughter once more.)   
  
He was mildly surprised that Pepper had not used birth control for years, but even more shocked that she hadn't had sex in years.   
  
"How do you live?" he asked. "Seriously. You have a life, right? You're beautiful and intelligent and your job doesn't take up every hour in your day. Most of the time. How could you not be getting any all this time?"   
  
"I'm not addressing any of those issues," said Pepper loftily, "except to point out that it can be done, contrary to your personal belief."   
  
(She'd really just gotten tired of dealing with mating dances and sexual politics and decided that until something exceptional showed up in her life, she'd live without.)   
  
The impetus for these conversations was the long-awaited, much-celebrated advent of Tony and Pepper's romantic relationship, and once it appeared to be not just long-term but infinite-term, Pepper raised the question of other forms of birth control.   
  
Tony was all for it. So was Pepper. And yet...   
  
"Tony," Pepper murmured as he slid his hands under her clothes and over her skin. "Tony, do you have one with you?"   
  
They were making out on the couch in Pepper's office at Stark Industries, door locked, phone forwarded, full speed ahead. Or so Tony thought.    
  
"One what? Oh, that," he said. "Don't need one any more, remember?"   
  
"Well, yeah, we do. For another couple of weeks."   
  
Tony raised himself up on an elbow to look at her.   
  
"A couple of weeks? Didn't you start on the pills two days ago?"   
  
"It's recommended we use a second form of prevention for at least fourteen days after the first dose," said Pepper.   
  
"You didn't tell me that."   
  
"Silly me. I figured you'd keep using the condoms until I gave you the all-clear."   
  
"I suck at waiting. You know that. Plus, I don't know how the stuff works, that's your department."   
  
Pepper sat up suddenly and went into laser-glare mode.   
  
"Anthony Edward Stark," she began. Tony scooted away from her and held up his hands in surrender.   
  
"Okay, you're right, that was an insensitive, chauvinistic comment," he said. "What I *meant* was, we're in this together, whatever you say works for me, and I'll start carrying one in my pocket again. Until you give the all-clear."   
  
Pepper looked slightly mollified.    
  
"But right now, no, I don't have one," he went on. "So I guess I'll go back to my office and take care of this raging hard-on in the executive bathroom."   
  
Now she laughed and grabbed his hand, pulled him up to stand right in front of her, his open fly at her eye level.   
  
"Oh, come here," she said. "We'll take care of each other."


End file.
